WAS IDAHO WOMAN WHO KILLED HUSBAND A BATTERED SPOUSE?

"May God forgive me, but I hate that animal more than words can describe."

Lyla Louise Sepulveda wrote those words hours after she grabbed a .20-gauge shotgun from her bedroom closet, loaded it with a pair of shells and shot her husband to death.Sepulveda, 51, on trial before an eight-woman, four-man jury in 3rd District Court for voluntary manslaughter, is accused of gunning down Ruben Rubio during a heated bedroom argument the morning of Aug. 28.

Sepulveda admitted shooting Rubio in a statement she wrote for authorities after the shooting. But her attorney maintains she was a battered wife who was only protecting herself and her young daughters from sexual abuse.

Testimony before Judge Gerald Weston began Tuesday. Sepulveda is free on $1,000 bail.

If convicted, the Nampa mother of eight faces up to 25 years in prison.

Minutes before the shooting, Rubio, 51, threatened to have sex with Sepulveda's 9-year-old daughter, Canyon County Public Defender Van Bishop said. At the time, Sepulveda's husband of two years was under investigation by Nampa police for allegedly molesting Sepulveda's 11-year-old daughter.

Stirring some of the dozen spectators in the courtroom to tears, Sepulveda's 16-page statement to authorities was read aloud to jurors Wednesday by Canyon County Sheriff's Capt. Dave Rowe, a prosecution witness.

Convinced Rubio had molested her daughter, Sepulveda said she had taken to going to bed fully clothed - disgusted by the prospect of sex with her husband.

According to Sepulveda's handwritten explanation, this is what happened:

As they lay together in bed shortly before dawn, Rubio "pawed" her body. She tried to move away, and he ripped her blouse.

After she continued to resist, Rubio angrily asked her to get the 9-year-old girl. "It's about time she learn her role as a woman in this world," he said.

Instead, Sepulveda relented, allowing him to have sex with her. Afterward, she dressed, fetched the shotgun and aimed it at Rubio.

"Get out of my life," she ordered, according to her statement. "I wasn't going to be abused and used by him anymore, nor was he ever going to hurt me or my babies ever again."